August 08, 2013

I stumbled upon this photo on the net today and fell in love with it, a quick search and turns out Paul was one of René Magritte closest friends, and founding member of the Belgian communist party. ( Explains why my grandfather loved René so much :-)titled "love is in the air "

Magritte and Paul on the right ( Belgium summer day 1929 :-)
Les Bras Révélateur
Birth of an Object
Coat suspended in space

Here is some information on Paul I dug up on the world wide web :-)

Paul Nougé (February 13, 1895- November 6, 1967) was a Belgian poet
and philosopher. He was one of the most influential members of the
Surrealist school in Belgium. He was a friend and associate of fellow
artists Louis Scutenaire, Marcel Mariën and René Magritte. His poetry
influenced Magritte. A number of his poems have been translated into
English by Robert Archambeau and Jean-Luc Garneau, and appear in
Samizdat (poetry magazine).

Portrait of Paul Nougé by René Magritte 1927

A founder member of the Belgian Communist Party, Nougé brought an
austere and trenchant intellect to the service of Surrealism, founding
the review Correspondance in 1924 with Marcel Lecomte and Camille
Goëmans and masterminding a collective strategy for the Brussels group,
whose diplomatic deflection of Parisian influences fostered a deceptive
blend of seeming modesty and occasional abrupt assertiveness. A
biochemist by training, Nougé wrote aphoristically, producing tracts,
open letters, and theoretical essays, gathered in Histoire de ne pas
rire (1956). His assiduous commentaries on the surreal canvases of his
friend René Magritte, printed as Les Images défendues in 1943, are as
gnomic and provocative as the paintings.

"Paul Nougé, however, famously "vomitted Dada", and with the
merging of Mesens and Magritte with the Correspondance group towards the
end of 1926, Nougé assumed the leadership of the nascent surrealist
group; Mesens' role was correspondingly reduced and the Dada influence
was replaced by that of Parisian surrealism. Breton, Eluard and Morise
had visited Nougé in Brussels in the summer of 1925 and, as a theorist
and intellectual, he was clearly perceived by the Parisians as the
leading figure of the Belgian group. The final issue of Marie - Adieu à
Marie - therefore assumed a very different character, less Dadaist in
tone, and rather closer to surrealism. As a purely Belgian, francophone
production it marked a shift from the Dada cosmopolitanism of the
previous issue and was more concerned with establishing a cohesive
Belgian group. While the review also looks more serious, it nonetheless
retains an air of Dadaist provocation, with Mesens staging a powerful
pairing of images of menacing clenched fists (Comme ils l'entendent, et
comme nous l'entendons, 1926) , photographed by Roland de Smet, using a
simple process of inversion, where the same object, a knuckle-duster, is
simply inverted. The result is a rather brutal and somewhat anarchistic
message, further reinforced by Nougé's poem 'les syllables muettes',
which begins: "Our mouth is full of blood. Our ears ring with blood. Our
eyes light up with blood." [7]" From Neil Matheson's article ELT
Mesens: Dada Joker in the Surrealist Pack.

David Sylvester, Magritte's biographer suggests that "The Theatened
Murderer" and the 1927 "Girl Eating Bird" were scripted by René Magritte
from a set of violent and erotic poes by Paul Nouge finally published in
1956. The poems were written circa 1926-1927 when both Magritte and
Nougé were working together designing catalogues for Samuels, a fur
company

July 29, 2013

Just stumbled upon this little number on the Beatz & Carrots music blog. I mean, I would not want to listen to this everyday, but it is sooooo much better than this continues pop bullshit over on my x beloved Jay airwaves. Gone are the days when I would stay up late at night listenening to the jays, tape recorder in ready record mode in case something new came on ( and which it did frequently ) I still have all these tapes, and they all shit on the current jays playlist

July 17, 2013

So after Orange, we arrived on dark at little historical town, Hill End ( gets dark at 5:30 here in winter now, crazy ) Next morning and the scene outside our bedroom, frost everywhere. We stayed upstairs in Hosie's old grocery store
beautiful day coming up, but a cold one
As it was dark when we arrived, I go for a little morning stroll before breakfast, and look what I spot on the block of land across from Hosie's
some kangaroos grazing in the morning sun
trying to get closer to one of them
relatively tame for a wild kangaroo
church service
couple more, probably enjoying the warm sun rays as much as I am
Hey ! No fighting outside church

party's over
off they hop
big old pine tree where a church used to be, in its hey day, Hill End had some 52 pubs ( licensed and non licensed ),now only one left & well over a dozen churches and from memory, a population of up to 8000 at one stage, now just under a 100 remain
After breakfast we drive up to one of the look outs,Beaufoy ( named after a local 1870's photographer ) and this is what it was all about Hawks Hill, see all the gravel on the side, there were about 20 mines along there and in the middle of that hill is where one of Australia's largest nuggets was found some 50 meters underground weighing in at close to 300kg, strike it rich
the end of Hawk Hill and at the bottom of the photo, a still operating mine
quite a lot of small alluvial gold is still found around these parts, so best we have a go to
we got our pans and some one optimistically thought we would each need one of these jars to collect our small pieces we would find...for sure
we gave it a go, but involved getting our hands wet and dirty ( dirty was not a problem ) but th water was ice cold, I think we might have to come back on a warmer day, say early autumn :-)
all (cold ) hands on deck
even though all is bushy, you can tell there was once a thriving community out here, judging by this old orchard
amazing blue sky day today
finding lots of old artifacts, but....
after spending well over an hour here, still nothing in these little jarswe leave empty (cold) handed
driving down the blue mountains, back to Sydney
"There's gold in them hills"

July 16, 2013

After our bush walk in Lithgow, we planned to have the most amazing vegetarian dinner in Orange, about 50 km west of Bathurst ( sorry no photos - Jacqui will do a post of the dinner soon ) We discovered it about 3-4 years ago on our way to Dubbo zoo. Bodhi Garden in Orange it's called, and I'm guessing they are Tibetan, such a variety of dishes, all vegetarian and still some taste like chicken dishes and others like beef, very yummy. So when in Orange next, visit Bodhi Garden for a healthy meal. Speaking of Orange always wondered why it was called Orange, as there it is not an Orange growing district, so why the name.It was first called Black Man's Swamp, after John Blackman who was guide, employed by Captain Percy. Then later on in the 1820's , surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell, who served in the Peninsula war as a aides des camps to the Duke of Wellington alongside, Prince William from Holland royal House Of Orange. So Thomas Mitchell named it after his dutch friend who went on to become the King of Holland. Aniiiiiiiiiiiway, we stayed at the Duntry League historic house, always nice to stay somewhere like this as opposed to the sterile motels. Beautiful place just on the outskirts of Orange on a golf course.
I've seen building before like this, but did not realize that those posts are solid cast iron, I just always thought it was a hard wood. So these iron posts were cast in Sydney and then shipped out ( some 290km ) to the country, back in the day, amazing stuff
beautiful tiled floor, all individual pieces too, these are not tiles with a pattern, they pieces to make a pattern
outside out room for the night ( yes, they did have an actual bathroom and we did not do it old school )
view from our room in the morning, they had a family room that we all fit in
love me a good old iron lace verandah
would look nicer in summer ( the barren trees )
inside
After breakfast, see-ing as we are in wine country we visit some of the local vienyards
Spring flowers are up early
on one of the vineyards they had a little animal farm, Belle managed to touch one of the newborn lambs, only a few days old. Now drive of to Hill End.

straight off the plane and out to the country we go, this time to Lithgow, the track in the national park to the glow worm tunnel, which is actually an old railway tunnel from back in the mining days
So arrived yesterday, and today in the country, love it. But sadly we were out Lithgow way for a funeral, but as it was school holidays, we turned it into a little trip for the kids as well.
The dark space in the middle of those ferns is the entrance to the tunnel, its a big tunnel ( big enough for a train )it has just become very overgrown with these lush ferns leading to the entrance
inside the tunnel, and yes, we saw lots and lots of glow worms, but just could not capture it on camera. I t was pretty spectacular
that's 3 kids, one with a tiny torch, and the other two lit up, but alas, no glow worms captured
light at the other end of the tunnel

again, very lush on the other side, feels like we arrived in the " lost Land "

Jacqui and Evan tunred back to the car, while the girls and I continue on exploring
very lush out here
walking along the track, so much dampness in the air ,even though it is a blue sky day. Would be nice to come back one day on a hot summer day
crossing little creek on a tree branch
the entrance to the tunnel on our return journey
the girls at the entrance

at the entrance still but this time, me inside looking out
after 5 min in the dark, we arrived back at the start of the tunnel
made it. Lithgow's Glow worm tunnel, well worth a visit, bring a torch, but not a big powerfull one, small one will do, let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you will see thouands of glow worms

July 15, 2013

Quick Shower and steamed bun and off again
not familiar with Hong Kong, but I guess this must be that new airport on an island of Hong Kong
still a lot of apartment buildings
Discovery Bay
hong kong's disney land
Ap Lei Chau with Lamma Island, so if I was sitting on the left hand side I would get a great view of Hong Kong I guess
Aberdeen marina, with what looks like an amusement park
zoom in, yes, Hong Kong Ocean Park
South China Sea

somewhere around the Phillipines or Indonesia
land ahoy, that would be Australia
on the right, Croker Island , just of the Northern Territory in the Arafura Sea
These Islands, just near Croker Island, the big one is called Mc Cluer Isladn and the small one I can't find a name for, but anyway, thse islands, even though they are in a sea as opposed to an oceam , appear to have the possibility for surf, maybe not often, but still
zoomed in, and that's definitly waves hitting the outer reef
the group of Islands of Croker Island
no wonder it was so hazy
remote part in the north, Arnhem Land at Junction Bay
woauw, and look at the path of the river :-)
zoom in
and a screen grab from google earth
Liverpool river near West Arnhem
Edward Island in the Gulf of Carpenteria
Maria Island
west tip of west Island
West Island
beautiful, but wary of crocodiles, also, would be lots of crabs
the ridged backs of crocodiles formed million years ago in the landscape
and another day draws to a close
a few hours out of Sydney. At least on this flight, as opposed to all of Qantas flights now, I am arriving in the evening, and not at the un godly hour of 5 or 6 in the morning ( depending on daylight saving ) And as well as now not being mr zombie jet lag all day, I got to see some amazing australian landscapes, have some dinner and go to bed :-)

of we go again
Somewhere near Poland I think
The way the windows are set up, or rather the seats in Cathay Pacifics 747 is so annoying, I really have to stretch and contort my body to try and look out the window
Russia
going into night time
china

nearing Hong Kong
never been to Hong Kong ( transiting Hong Kong airport does not count ) and I guess there are a lot of Islands around Hong Kong
and lots of boats